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The Basswife and her twin sister decided to go help their parents get organized in early September, leaving me totally unsupervised for several days. After a quick check of my business obligations versus my itch to fish, it did not take long to conclude that I needed to take two days off and hit the river. Hah... the joyous problem - which river?
Having had a great experience on the North Branch of the Potomac at Lostland Run on several different occasions, I decided to spend two days doing a very focused and complete examination of the North Branch above Lostland. A quick map recon revealed 4 access points south of Lostland Run:
- Laurel Run
- Wallman (North)
- Wallman (South)
- As well as the long stretch with multiple parking pulloffs associated with the
river near Gormania
I decided to start at Wallman north and hit the other two locations the following day with only a quick drive by recon of Gormania. After doing a map recon of the terrain around Wallman North, my plan was to walk north on the railbed from the parking area to the bridge and then fish downstream for a bit; fishing upstream on the way back to the truck, This would also let me check out Stony River where it comes into the North Branch.
Even though the discharge volume and gage height was close to an annual low in early September when I was on site, it did not seem like there was any shortage of water in the river - to the extent that I was concerned about finding a place where I could wade across to get back to the truck on my trek out
Here is the annual profile of the discharge - you can see that in early September, it was pretty low. 
The gage height was around 2.5 on the day I was there: 
The net of these statistics is that I was fishing this section of the river on a reasonably low volume, low water day. Wow - I was impressed with the number of pools and deep cuts even the low water conditions supported. Given the low numbers above, the typical profile of this stretch is that it would be fuller and faster - increasing the number of pools and holding areas. The water temp below the bridge was 63 degrees - a bit warm, but still cold enough to support the trout population.
At the bridge, I scrambled down the bank, dodging poison ivy on the way, and began working downstream. There are 4 - 5 pool locations immediately downstream of the bridge that were so attractive that I spent the better part of the morning working them over. I know this is a common failing - pools are fishermen attractors and I would have done better working the water between the pools, but I could just not pass them up.
The entire Wallman section is part of the delayed harvest program and, sadly, I did not catch any trout here at all; either because this late in the season the trout have been harvested, or, the fish are just smarter after a summer of being hunted. Given my skills, either could be the truth.
BUT, the smallie action was "on" and I had a great time working these bad boys. They loved anything that moved with a gold flash or floated and jerked. I fed them different sized Panther Martins and rapallas with great success all morning long. After lunch, I broke the hypnotic attraction to the pools and worked my way back upstream. I wanted to fish the NB as well as the Stony on the way back to the truck Using my rule of thumb developed over the last year of "trout hiking", every 15 minutes of hiking will translate to 30 - 45 minutes of fishing. Without the Stony detour, I needed to have at least 3 hours to work the NB between the bridge and the truck.
Since I was a mile from the truck with plenty of good water to work, I popped back up on the railbed and began searching for an access point that did not involve poison ivy. I quickly walked 100 yards past the bridge to the old trestle shown in one of the pictures below, found a spot and snuck down to the water. Fish on! I missed several good trout at the trestle - the only trout that flashed me all day. The smallie action continued without pause.
I tested a number of crossings as I wanted to be on the West Virginia side to hit the Stony. Finally found a gentle, shallow spot and worked my way over to West Virginia. The limestone used to kill the acid in this river gives everything a greasy feel; making every rock slippery. I usually carry a wading staff like the one shown at the bottom of this article when working around rocks and, on the NB, it is a mandatory piece of equipment.
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Steyer, MD gage reading
An observation I made while climbing and crawling over the rocks on the East side is that it would be even more sporty if the water were higher. I did not see any defined trail on the East side. You have to scramble over the rocks and pools that line the eastern shore. A quick glance at the topo map confirms that this is a steep bank that forces you to the edge of the river. If the water were higher, the East side would be a bear to negotiate at all and, in different conditions, you may find yourself confined to the Maryland shore. However, given the number of great looking spots on the stretch from the bridge back to the parking lot, this should not be a big deal - you will be able to keep your line wet and productive from either side.
While I can't speak for the trout as I did not experience enough trout action to come to a conclusion, the smallies lurked in the eddies after the fast water just waiting to chew on something. I would nail them with the Panther Martins as well as jointed, rainbow trout rapallas. Throw the rapalla out there, wait a second, give it a twitch and BANG! They loved the top water presentation right along with spinners worked a few feet off the bottom.
As you work up the stream, you have to walk across many areas where the walking surface consists of flat, eroded rock that has been smoothed to a slick finish. Boy, does this present a special hazard! Those things are slippery! I was wearing wading boots with cleats surrounded by felt and had to be very careful to step on cracks where the cleats would grab. I almost lost it several times as the cleats skittered over the smooth rock surface and I had to contort and gyrate to retain my balance. Shoes with pure felt soles would have been the ticket, but then you would die as you tried to work your way over the other smaller rocks where cleats work better. All in all, cleats are the best choice up here - just pay close attention to your footing when working across the flat, smooth sections.
Since this was in the middle of the week (Thursday), I had the river to myself. I looked for signs of other fishermen and, of course, found the normal mix of cans and bottles that hopefully washed down from upstream as opposed to being thrown out by fishermen, but no footprints in the sand. I had the sense that nobody had been on this water for at least a week. Picked up a Walmart shopping bag worth of trash on the way back to the truck.
Saw the typical wildlife signs - some deer tracks and other small animals. Did not see any bear tracks like I saw down near Lostland Run. Just in case, I always carry my bear spray - especially after watching a recent episode of "Hunter and Hunted" on Discovery that focused on a rogue bear.
Switchfisher's bottom line: Great spot - dual trout and bass action. Added this to the list of places to recommend.
Getting There: It's a bit confusing.
For detailed directions, please purchase either the North Branch Map Book for $4.95 or the full 190 page Fishing guide to the North Branch for $9.95. After checkout, you can download the books instantly.
The fishing guide is also available in hardcopy - click here
Both books include detailed directions overlaid on topo maps with pictures for the confusing places to get you to the river. The key difference is that the full book walks you up the river from Westernport to Wilson using over 140 pictures with a detailed discussion of what to expect beyond the parking lot.
Sorry to have to do this, but selling these eBooks is how I support the cost of maintaining this site. Please support the site.
Lodging: Since I was up here for two days, I decided to grab a cheap motel instead of camping out. I searched the internet for motel options - not many given that the closest town to this part of the NB is a small town called Oakland. Oakland is south of the Deep Creek Lake resort area which has are pleny of options, but I did not want to pay resort prices just to get a shower at the end of the day. Finally, I stumbled across a jewel of a place - the Oak-Mar Motel in Oakland. It is inexpensive (45 bucks for a single) and spotlessly clean. In addition, they agreed to watch my back. Since I was fishing by myself, I wanted to be sure somebody would call the cavalry if I did not show up at the end of a day. So, I printed a topo map of where I would be, briefed the desk clerk and left my spare FRS radio in my room preset to my freq.
The drill was that the clerk would call the cops if I did not return to the motel by 8 PM. Worked like a charm. The clerk I briefed had fully updated his replacement. He was waiting for me to check in and knew exactly what to do if I failed to materialize. This is perfect! An inexpensive, clean place run by folks who will go the extra mile for you. If you need a place to stay while fishing either the Yough or the North Branch, I strongly endorse the Oak-Mar. You can reach them at (301) 334-3965. Good restaraunt there as well. |
